Alternatives to endless frozen pizza!?

[cosmikdebris]

My daughter is 2 and a half weeks old, any time for cooking has gone out the window and I've resorted to stocking up on frozen Pizzas as the ultimate food. They take 10 minutes, taste decent and it doesn't matter if they go cold! But it's getting a little out of hand, my partner and I are eating them literally every day, usually more than once. (i just put one in the oven for my breakfast. Yikes.) £I'd meal prep and freeze but I don't have a microwave!
Im 20 with minimal culinary skills, my partner struggles with beans on toast😂 I love cooking but I'm not skilled at all so it tends to take me a while even if it is a simple dish.
Any quick and simple meals that aren't awful after they've gone cold would be appreciated! I'm weaning myself onto a veggie low carb diet too, so anything along those lines would be even better.

Bit low carb, but packet couscous is so easy, just pour boiling water and leave it, but a pack of cooked chicken and stir that in. Nice cold too (a bit like a couscous salad?!)

For low carb, what about buying a load of carrot sticks, baby tomatoes and cucumber, and a pot of hummus? Might not fill you up for long though.

Omelette is super easy and quick, just stick everything in a frying pan and then under the grill.

For breakfast can’t you have a bowl of cereal with fruit, or toast? Not low carb but better than pizza!

Switch a pizza for a quiche? Same kind of shove in the oven and doesn’t matter if goes cold, then add some bagged salad/ cherry tomatoes?

Get sandwich fillers from the deli section and dollop into sandwiches? Not especially low carb but you could use sandwich thins or oatcakes to make lower carb.

Likewise you can get pre made couscous salads/ potato salad/ etc and add some salad leaves and veg sticks.

Not cheap but neither is eating pizza for breakfast!

Two quick easy meals-

Buy some chopped beef and fry, add frozen stir fry veggies, udon noodles and some soy sauce.

Quickly chop some bacon and fry, add tin of tomatoes, tin of chickpeas and frozen chopped spinach and boil some pasta to have with it.

Quiche - sold in the chilled section of the supermarket and you can get crustless varieties too. www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/263515242

Pesto pasta is also quick, easy, cheap and can be eaten hot or cold.

Sausages! Cook more than you need and cold sausages can be cut up for sandwiches or in a low-carb salad drizzled with a honey and mustard dressing. You can get some pretty decent veggie alternatives now too.

This couscous salad doesn’t require any cooking, just assembling! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10minute-couscous-salad

You definitely don’t need a microwave for reheating frozen food. In fact, I’ve read that chicken is best reheated in the oven for food safety reasons.

Would it not be worth investing in a microwave? Argos cheapest is 39.99 but I’m sure you could get one cheaper even if from a fb selling page?

Otherwise, it’s worth notice you don’t need a microwave to heat up food. I tend to throw it in a woke and blast it that way.

My quickest meals are chow mien/egg rice fried rice

Buy a cooked chicken and strip it and use the chicken in with a salad/rice/pasta

If you buy a microwave then you have the option of microwave meals (Iceland do a huge frozen slimming world range of pre prepped meals)

I made a really easy 3 bean veggie chilli last night. It’s basically chucking tins and spices into a roasting tin and putting in the oven. Really tasty and minimal prep! It made quite a lot so you could the freeze some for another time.

I can’t find the recipe online but there is an old thread on here with it! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/3632493-Anyone-got-the-Green-Roasting-Tin-book-to-hand

Buy a cookery book aimed at students. YouTube cooking videos are helpful as well.

I don't understand why your partner struggles with beans on toast. Is he dyslexic? How did you manage before having a baby?

And congratulations

make pancakes and then everyone can put what toppings they like on them

Not quick or low carb but jacket potatoes are zero hands on time and you can get your variety by mixing up the toppings.

Again not low carb but fresh pasta and sauce

Fritata

I really like the pouches of Heinz creations. Google them the lentil dhal is v good and could be heated in a pan in a few minutes.

If it’s a pizza rotation at the mo then I would add in a range of things on toast, eggs, beans, avocado, mushrooms, tomatoes etc.

Also may be worth looking at supermarkets bbq range, lots of it can be done in the oven and is pretty much chuck it in and leave it , serve with prepped salad.

Veggie ds1s favourite is spinach and ricotta tortellini. Its pasta so maybe not totally low carb. Cooks in 3 mins. He has it with either cheese sauce (you can buy a bisto one that you mix with boiling water or ready made if you can't make your own), cream cheese or mayonnaise mixed through. Add a side salad.

Tesco do a stir-fry meal deal - veggies, noodles and sauce that can be cooked in minutes

Quick/easy + veggie + low carb is a tall order. I’d drop the low carb idea for now and focus on quick and easy! Also your DP needs to be helping out while you have such a tiny baby - if he can’t do beans on toast he needs to practice until he can, that’s so basic.

My DS is a veggie and he likes the breaded cauliflower cheese bakes from Tesco freezer section, two of those with some bagged salad and mayo would be easy enough to eat one handed/cold! Also the spinach and ricotta tortellini a PP mentioned is a big hit.

With a young baby you need to keep it quick and easy and instant energy, once you start adding low carb into the mix you’re adding extra planning and effort, so save that for a bit later!

What about a slow cooker? Follow a recipe from google and it should be straight forward for you.

Omelettes are quick and you can buy ready chopped up veg, maybe some stir fry mix to add to it? And some ham, mushrooms, tha5 sort of thing. V quick

I don't understand why you would put a pizza in for breakfast rather than make a bowl of cereal!

Scrambled eggs

Pasta bake

Fresh pasta and sauce

Stuffed pasta

Pies

Tray bakes- loads of recipe books

Slow cookers are great too. I would probably get a microwave- you will use it when weaning baby so will be an investment.

Chilli
Lasagne
Pasta bake
In fact any kind of simple pasta dish
Stir fry
Burgers

Buy a simple quick meals from scratch cook book. You can do all of the above pretty quickly, not too expensive.

I try to avoid too many processed foods though.

The absolute easiest things I 'cook' after a 13 hour shift; fish and chips( frozen so throw in oven). Chilli con carne. Fry mince meat in duce pan then add sauce jar and then microwave rice.

When we need a quick meal I use the steam fresh rice and veg you can have it with pretty much anything like quiche, fish, chicken breast. You can get a microwave very cheaply and it will make your life much easier when you dont have time to cook

Is there a reason you dont buy a microwave (£35 asda) which would open up your world to have warmed up food the following day???

BBC food website has multiple 'how to' for basic cooking techniques.

Buy filled tortellini and use a jar of pasta sauce

Fritatta is basically any veg cooked in egg- frozen peas, frozen corn, left over roast veg

Think someone mentioned above but tesco do a fresh stir fry mix & match selection which take maybe 5 or so mins to make.

Pesto pasta - with raw tomatoes mixed in, basically becomes a pasta salad if it goes cold.

Curry, a good one where you can stick in a load of random veggies with curry from a jar and leave to simmer, also means you can make plenty and stick it in the fridge/freezer to reheat on the hob at a later point.

I bought my friend "how to feed yourself when you don't know what you're doing" off Amazon as a joke (after a disastrous attempt at Sheppards Pie( and they said it was actually quite a good one for basic recipes

Not the most exciting, but sausage, chips and beans is a cracking tea in my book - chuck in the oven for 20 mins and boom

No prep dinners-

Stuffed pasta and pesto.
Burgers and chips and corn on the cob.
Sausages and mash (you can buy ready done mash)

Easy cook dinners -
Fajitas - a beginner cook can buy the kits and follow the very simple instructions!
Omelette.
Macaroni cheese - a cheese sauce is very easy to make, but a nervous beginner cook can buy a cheese sauce.

I'd look at Jack Monroe's blog and recipe books (not expensive on the likes of amazon) as Jack does recipes that are quick, cheap, tasty, easy and don't require any fancy kitchen equipment. Jack's done a lot of veggie and vegan recipes and many of the other recipes could be made veggie/vegan with simple substitutions

My first thought was your partner needs to learn how to make beans on toast 😂
Bags of salad, healthier ready meals (get a microwave) just get ready prepared stuff for the next couple of weeks, then start looking at improving your cooking skills between you.